MALIBU, California – The most wonderful factor about the $2.1 million Rimac Nevera is how simple it’s to simply get in and drive.
The Nevera is an electric hypercar from Croatia. It sits low — very low — to the floor, and at first look it appears like the easy act of entering into it could possibly be sophisticated. But the doorways, which raise up and out form of like a Lamborghini’s, lower into the roof simply sufficient to make sure that I do not bump my head as I drop myself into the driver’s seat.
Getting underway does take a little little bit of studying. Gears are shifted with a huge knob to the left of the steering wheel, the energy seat’s changes are hidden in a touchscreen, and switches for the flip indicators and headlights are mounted straight on the steering wheel. But as soon as you have acquired that down, it is easy to function.
The complete automotive is like that — easy to function — its 1,914 horsepower however.
One of the first issues I observed as we acquired underway is that it is easy to see out of the Nevera. That’s not a given with vehicles like this. For instance, in Ferraris and Lamborghinis and different low-slung freeway rockets, it is usually a problem to see what’s behind you. But whereas the Nevera is certainly low slung, there’s simply sufficient of a rear window to make it simple to drive in freeway visitors. Good aspect mirrors actually assist with that.
There’s additionally simply sufficient mechanical noise to remind you that you simply’re in a hypercar. There will not be an engine, however there are 4 electric motors and they make mellifluous mechanical sounds as the automotive strikes down the highway. Not so loud that I could not converse with my passenger, Rimac’s Ryan Lanteigne, in a affordable speaking voice. It is simply loud sufficient to remind us that we’re driving in one thing particular.
And the Nevera could be very particular certainly — appropriately for its simply over $2 million asking worth. You’ll see why in the video.
The Rimac story
Rimac — pronounced REE-mahtz, roughly — is Croatia’s first and solely automaker. Its 35-year-old founder, Mate (MAH-ta) Rimac, began tinkering with electric autos after he blew the engine in an outdated BMW he raced as a teenager. After rebuilding it with an electric drivetrain — and profitable some races, apart from — he based Rimac Automobili in 2009, hoping to at some point construct an electric supercar in his house nation.
Although Rimac the firm’s first years have been a battle, Mate’s timing turned out to be glorious on reflection, with automakers round the world transferring to impress their fleets.
Rimac’s early prototypes have been spectacular sufficient to draw important investments from Hyundai and Porsche, and it raised another 500 million euros (or about $534 million) final 12 months. Those served as the basis of what’s now a thriving enterprise consulting to conventional automakers keen to construct high-performance EVs. Aston Martin and Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg are amongst Rimac’s purchasers, together with a variety of others that the firm says it may well’t but disclose.
The Nevera is known as for the fierce summer season storms that roll into Croatia from the Adriatic Sea. (Rimac workers prefer to say that neveras — the storms — are “extraordinarily powerful and charged by lightning,” similar to their automotive.)
The Nevera (the automotive) serves each as a rolling show of Rimac’s EV experience and as the supercar that Mate Rimac has lengthy dreamed of constructing. It’s a four-motor design — one for every wheel — with a 120 kilowatt-hour battery pack, sufficient for about 300 miles of vary below regular driving circumstances.
Four motors and a cravat
But there’s nothing regular about the Nevera’s energy output. Those 4 motors give it a complete of 1,914 horsepower, and 2,360 newton-meters of torque — sufficient for a prime pace of 258 miles per hour. Zero to 60 miles per hour takes simply 1.74 seconds, in response to Rimac.
I did not confirm that point with any nice accuracy, however I can attest that such a energy thrust is believable. As pleasant as it’s to drive in visitors, the Nevera is sort of unbelievably fast when totally uncorked. But it by no means feels uncontrollable, and that is a important engineering achievement.
Even extra spectacular, albeit extra refined, is the approach these 4 motors work collectively. The automotive’s techniques regulate every motor’s energy output 100 instances a second to make sure optimum dealing with second to second. Or, put one other approach, the Nevera blasts via and out of tight corners with out hesitation. That’s a trick that different supercars can solely emulate with braking.
It’s an much more spectacular trick given the automotive’s weight, round 5,100 kilos. But as arduous because it is perhaps to consider, that weight is so properly packaged, with the batteries mounted low and near the Nevera’s heart, that it is hardly noticeable. (Of course, the super energy on faucet helps.)
It’s a handsome automotive, too, low and radical however not over the prime. Civilized. It’s well-made, with flawless carbon fiber on the outdoors and comfy leather-based all through the inside. Croatia would not have a custom of automotive making, however the Nevera does mirror some nationwide pleasure: In addition to the automotive’s identify, the intakes on its sides are styled to resemble a cravat, the ancestor of the fashionable necktie — a Croatian invention relationship to the sixteenth century.
The Nevera begins at 2 million euros, or simply over $2.1 million. If that is in your worth vary, communicate up quickly. Rimac says it plans to construct simply 150 of them.
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